Issue 231

States parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measure, to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child. Article 19 section 1 (Convention on the Rights of the Child)

The endorsement of this convention evidenced that world came together to engulf children with kindness and warm treatment because they all got from their minds the need for protecting children to the fullest way possible. Otherwise, children would receive the full brunt of human evils and adult’s trouble manifestation.

We may ask “Why do we need to be protected as children?” Sure, we want to grow up with thorough mental and physical development and we can not manage even to survive by ourselves, unless there are two dedicated parents. Typically like a young tree, nourishment is what children have to stipulate. Needed, also, are more support, parental care, community protection and overall recognition as productive human being from the part of adults.

Again we may wonder “Do children get protection as supposed (in Somaliland)?” The answer lies bare in front of us. Recall your childhood; really it was painful experience; it was a challenging age instead of being the age of pleasure, play, and rapture.

Remember the old Somali saying “caruurnimo waa ciil laga waynaado” which proved to be true for most of us. We all passed a childhood age full of violence, nightmare, degrading and excess of negligence. This saying also conveys the general sentiment of Somalis towards childhood; every Somali not only became unfortunate to relish the feeling of being a happy child but also a child to cherish the fantasy of being well-parented.

Somaliland, where children cry and no body gives a sympathetic ear; where children are treated ruthlessly; and where children are neglected to great extent, will be analyzed throughout this article.

Protection is one of the basic rights of children and one of primary responsibilities of adults (parents) dwelling on this planet. Regardless to the color and ethnic origin of children, it is upon adults to care and open their hearts to children.

Contrarily, fathers and mothers of Somali families seem to be failed upon the proper bringing up of their children. Sometimes it looks that marriage is a contract which is intended to produce conspiracy to degrade and violate the rights of their offspring. Marrying couples only plan and promise love and a together-life for one another without putting any plans ahead for the coming children. The only terms of reference available for lawful wedded couples is mutual respect between them. If Allah endows any children, they, will never win love and trust. As a result, children are not listened and talked to. They are insulted and blamed, shouted at and sometimes humiliated immensely.

It was an early evening - nearly at the sun dusk - when I encountered a woman carrying a long stick and chasing after a very young child of around four. The child was not even walking steadily. He was crying and screaming heavily. The mother was speeding up from behind. She soon hauled him back biting her lips with anger and loudly insulting the origin, the color, the mother, and the behavior of the child. She lashed the stick to the child and in a second, the child fainted and rolled his eyes with white fluid coming out of his mouth. Guess this situation. It really made me bewildered and dumbfounded. I thought “Whose mother and origin is this child? Who teaches children how to behave? And who gives the color of the children?” The mother was his; the behavior was hers; and the color was Allah’s. None of them deserved insult.

How would you conclude this as an adult?.............My personal prejudgment is that this story and millions resembling it are what we carelessly express as Caadi….Waa iska caadi – Normal….it is normal. But, to be frank, such a sense of indifference verge on the absurd.

Worse than this are the emerging issues in Somali society - the divorce. There was once in our history when marriage was a sacred relationship and strong tie which did not fail easily. Now, marriage is no longer given a bit of respect. People come together and move apart with much ease. No litigation at all. When couples divorce each other mostly, they do not have positive feelings about each other; and they do not love their children more than they hate one another. As in many cases children are kept by one of the two families of the couples to threaten the other. In most of the cases, wives take children to seek for financial support for herself and the children from the husbands, a typical hostage. Husbands keep their recourses back to punish divorced wives and their family. This has always a negative impact on children when parental care gets loose and when divorced couples remarry because they go into two different families and different spouses who do not have heart to the children as they do not belong to them. When you go to district courts in Somaliland you will see more divorces than marriages, which is tragedy. The dispute is usually only over innocent children. Then, the court will put the responsibility and the care of the children upon one of the parents. The other parent will never come around to take his/her share of parenting. It is unfortunate of those children. "Kids have to know that there are two caring adults dedicated to their well-being," "Like a good marriage, a good divorce requires maturity, commitment, cooperation and work -- especially if children are involved,"

“While children make up more than two thirds of the world population, they still take up less than five percent of media coverage space. Would it be true then to argue that children receive biased media coverage?”

Somali media, whatever it is - printed or electronic such as TV’s, Radios or newsletters - it marginalizes children who constitute of a huge portion of the society. Children get very small percentage of consideration in the media and almost all programs are designed by adults and for adults--no room for children. Thousands of cases which are affecting children get attraction not because they are affecting children but because they can make news and tell some stories to adults. Though we talk about floods, we do not mention how they affect children but we tell how they destroy businesses and buildings. Many other issues that are abundantly aired and printed in our media could have been viewed from children’s perspective and their beneficiaries.

It is not necessary that children are employed at our studios and given the authority and privilege to handle the microphone and tell some of the very world critical issues to adults and other children but, it is necessary to let children be part of the mission of the radios, TVs and newsletters. This will enable society to improve the conditions of the neglected children. This will make things better, not worse. I wish I could see children getting attention in the media and a media treating children as an important issue not just a news item or amusement program of cartoon film and sheekoy sheeko or sheeko gaaban…

“It is a truism that the media posses the most powerful tools available to promote children’s rights, influence people’s attitudes, expose the realities of the problems facing children and contribute to behavior change.

Journalists have a certain social responsibility and ought to give the specific attention required in the coverage of issues affecting children. While children are not different species, they are not adults and therefore need special help and protection when dealing with them.”

In Islam, mosque is regarded a holy place to worship God; and more than this, mosque makes where people get their religious instructions and teachings. This is what it meant to be but imagine of a child being chased by an adult person from mosque…..think of a young boy being beaten in a mosque…..does this make an example of Islam’s compassion and kindness……no, definitely, no. Islam gives a protection whoever comes inside mosque. For instance, one day, a nomadic man entered mosque (with the presence of the Messenger Muhammad PBUH and his followers) and he peed on the mosque ground. Followers wanted to beat him but the Messenger stopped them from doing so and said “Just let him finish and pour a packet of water on the urine!” What a wonderful reaction is this? A protection for a man urinating in a mosque… if this was acceptable to our Prophet, why playing, sitting, and praying children in a mosque deserve to be kicked out of Mosques as most of adults do in our mosques…

Can’t this leave children a mental scar and hatred for mosques and adult people? Probably yes.

In the same manner, the rest of the society in every where, do not show respect for children. We do not talk to them or listen to them. We believe in the dirty Somali saying “caruureey xaar goraylay inalyn la lama xaajoodo”

More over, Somali society, do not encourage the critical thinking, the mental productivity of children and young people. Instead, they stick to what they call a practice whose discontinue might cause God’s curses. Is it fair that sticking staunchly to the wrong thinking of old men: “nin yari inta uu laan ka boodo ayuu talo ka boodaa” to deter children’s right to develop their mental power and to share the society with the mattering issues?

Children who we call ciyaala suuq or darbi jiif – street children, suffer daily from the damage of adults they serve as shoe polishers. They look us up and we do not say to them thanks. We keep them down in the mud. One single smile might do a lot for them. We just believe they are business people and we do not think of their age and sufferings. One of my greatest experiences for the last one and half years is the problem of street children in Somaliland as I was a coordinator for a street children project named “Gacan-Qabad”. This helped me touch the fact and the size of the street children problem. Huge number of children happened to be living or/and working on the streets. Those children tasted the bitter of the life. They missed parental care, education, support and almost every thing.

Islam has given a great care to children. It was Mohamed, our prophet, PBUH who would take his grandsons (Hassan and Hussein) upon his back whilst in the prayer. Since Mohamed (PBUH) was the instructor of all Muslims, doesn’t this encourage Muslims to keep children so close to their hearts and to their arms? Don’t children mean a lot to you (as a Muslim) had it was to your Prophet Mohamed? Mohamed says in Hadith whose meaning is “whodoes not show kindness to our adolescents/youngsters and does not respect our adults is not one of us (does not belong to Islam)”

Also, in the Koran, Allah is saying “When the girl-child that was buried alive is made to ask, for what crime she had been slain” …. This Ayat of Koran is discouraging any harmful practices committed against children because in the eternal life of Aakhira(Hereafter), those who violated children will be asked why and will be punished accordingly.

On another hand, Islam shows good examples for empowering children and youth. Look back at Islam history, when Islam was on its peak and Prophet Muhammad was alive. Followers of the prophet allowed a child of 7 to lead prayers.

One of great Muslim scholars once said “ a child is a property (to keep) with the hands of his/her parents; and his/her is clean and a precious jeweler; had it be packed with evil and neglected like animal, he/she will gone bad and destroy; and his protection is to let him/her learn good behavior, and to instruct him/her the best conducts and ethics” Similarly, our prophet said in a Hadith whose meaning is “One will suffice, as a crime, to neglect who is parenting.”

After we have ignored the marvelous Islam teachings, the international conventions on child rights, the common sense, and the humanity, we have let our children live uncomfortably. We have made our children captives in cages. We have disabled them. You can inquire why our children are always very naughty; why our children seem unable to control themselves; why they are even incapable to express their feelings; why they are so weak. In my opinion, children are aching inside themselves while we are feeling superb. We made them inferior through our behaviors. We made them less confident in them selves. They do not trust themselves and to anyone else. Childhood is like hell; who goes through it safe is half lucky and who in the course is immeasurably aching. May Allah mitigate their suffering!

Confer with children
Listen to children
Do not beat them
Instruct and teach them in kind words
Say good word about them
Do not insult or intimidate them
Empower them
Do not use or exploit them
Play with them
Keep them close to you and kiss them